Blizzard defends Diablo Immortal

Blizzard is bringing 'Diablo Immortal' to mobile gamers because the franchise is already well-represented on other platforms.

Blizzard is bringing 'Diablo Immortal' to mobile gamers because the franchise is already well-represented on other platforms.

Diablo Immortal

The company announced the next title in the series during BlizzCon over the weekend, and the team has explained its decision to expand into the mobile market.

Principle game designer Wyatt Cheng told GameSpot: "At the end of the day, at Blizzard, we're gamers.

"And we play a ton of games on all platforms, console, PC. We play board games. We play card games. We just play games, and a lot of us play mobile games.

"And I think when we look at an opportunity to make an awesome mobile game, we want to take it."

The game is being developed with NetEase, and they are looking forward to telling more stories from the franchise's universe.

Cheng added: "We were looking at this 20 year period in between 'Diablo II', 'Lord of Destruction', and 'Diablo III', and we said, 'All these events happened, so we should take a look at creating a game that explores that space in time.' "

Although the team know people will be "skeptical" about the title, they are hoping "word of mouth" will be able to win them over.

He explained: "I think that's reasonable in today's world, our modern world, to be a little skeptical.

"But then for the people who play it, if they can go out and say, 'No, no, no, seriously, guys. I was at BlizzCon. I played the demo. It was awesome.' Hopefully that word of mouth spreads."